Corporal James Dunsby when he was in Afghanistan. Picture: Ministry of Defence.Source: Supplied

THEY wanted to be the best of the best, but now an inquiry is trying to find out how three men, including a Tasmanian, were driven to their deaths in a British SAS recruitment test.

A court has been told how three reservists – former Hobart man Corporal James Dunsby, Lance Corporal Craig Roberts and Trooper Edward Maher – were forced to march in full kit over the hills of Wales during one of the hottest days of the year.

Pleading for water and rest, the soldiers were allegedly pushed to keep on going.

The three men collapsed under the pressure.

A pre-inquest hearing yesterday heard the men died from overheating, two on that day in July 2013 with Lance-Cpl Roberts, 31, two weeks later in a hospital from multiple organ failures.

Angus Lawrence, who died in the Northern Territory.Source: Supplied

Now two British SAS trainers are facing manslaughter and gross negligence charges over their heat-related deaths.

The court has heard there were witnesses who saw the men begging for water and clearly in distress and prosecutors are reviewing police evidence including 166 witness statements. Ninety-five are from soldiers present on the day of the course.

A decision on charges is due at the end of this month and a three-week inquest is to be heard later in the year.

Royal Yeomanry reservist Cpl Dunsby migrated to Tasmania with his family as a seven-year-old.

The family lived in Hobart where he did his schooling at St Virgil’s College and later a degree at the University of Tasmania studying history and political science before joining the Australian Army.

Known as JD to his mates, the dual Australian-Briton national and his wife Bryher had been living in Bath in England’s west. He had hoped to join the SAS and was partaking in the training recruitment course that required him to hike an 886m mountain in full kit in 29.5C.

The tragedy had eerie similarities with the death of another Tasmanian soldier in the Northern Territory in 2004. Angus Lawrence, from Launceston, died from heat stroke at the Mount Bundey training area after he and 67 other soldiers were ordered to dig pits and patrol in temperatures above 40C.

After the tragedy a court found that the military had been negligent and Defence altered its hot weather procedures so that troops were trained in the prevention of heat stress.

In 2008, Cpl Dunsby was part of a three-man crew of an armoured car with Prince Harry on their first Afghanistan deployment and the pair became close.